Barbara Boxer: “we have had the same 50 parts per billion standard for arsenic in our drinking water since 1942. Since then, study after…”

“we have had the same 50 parts per billion standard for arsenic in our drinking water since 1942. Since then, study after study has confirmed that this level of arsenic in our drinking water is unsafe. After decades of review, a final drinking water standard was finally set to go into effect in March of this year. The new standard would have required no more than 10 parts per billion arsenic in drinking water. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration stopped this new rule from going into effect. This decision was a major blow to public health in this country. Arsenic causes lung cancer, skin cancer, and bladder cancer. We know that if you drink water at the current standard for arsenic you have a 1 in 100 chance of getting cancer. The Bush Administration has decided that we can wait, despite mountains of scientific evidence on the serious health threat posed by arsenic. By suspending the new arsenic standard, the President is preventing communities from getting started on the upgrades they need to make to their drinking water systems. This is unacceptable, and I am a co-sponsor of legislation that would restore the 10 parts per billion standard.”